North London Mums is the place for everything of interest to North London Mums and North London Dads. We want to help other parents to find the best activities to do with their families, the best shops and websites to visit, and the most child friendly restaurants to eat in. We believe in supporting local businesses and other mumpreneurs and in building communities.

Appy Monday - App Attack on Eurostar

Question: What do you do with a 1 year old and a 3 year old on Eurostar to Paris for 2 1/2 hours? Answer: Get out the iPhone. Two Apps which saved my life this weekend:

For the baby: Peekaboo: Ladybird Baby Touch

Published by Penguin, this is the virtual version of the Peekaboo touch book which was a staple with North London Toddler a couple of years ago.

With calming background music and lighthearted sound effects, the app brings up four scenes for a baby to explore: Farm, sea, animals and vehicles and is really easy for a baby to navigate round- North London Baby was certainly drawn to touch the screen to reveal the different animals and characters.

What we loved: the bright colours, and fun introduction to nursery characters and scenes. The App really brings the original touch book to life and has a good selection of different scenes to keep a baby occupied for some time.

What we didn't: In some ways the book works better as you lose the different textures that draw babies to the book.

Remember Topsy and Tim? The staple toddlers' story books from the 70's (first published in the 60's) about the adventures of the loveable twins, Topsy and Tim. If, like me, you do- then you will be pleased to know that they have hit the 21st century in full swing with this iPhone/iPad App. If not, then welcome to their loveable world!

The purpose of the app is to follow Topsy and Tim as they start school. Youfollow the preparations for school, personalising an avatar and then follow a story with games along the way to getting ready for and going to school, such as putting objects in a school bag. All this set to rather 70's style elevator music!

What we loved: the games are great- they require a bit of skill and memory to get them right so NorthLondonToddler was happy to play them again and again.

What we didn't: The story element is (rightly) aimed at slightly older children so an adult needs to navigate through it for littler people. If you leave the app you lose your place in the story-but we were quite happy to start again!

We would love to see more of the Topsy and Tim stories converted to apps!